This pub is not only a grade II listed building, it is also a One Star pub on the Campaign for Real Ale’s (CAMRA) National Inventory with an interior of special national historic interest, and the description is as follows: "Probably built between 1787 and 1797, when it was known as the Bunch of Grapes, the present façade of this four- storey building is 19th century. The existence of two front doors would indicate a passageway previously existed for access to the rear room.

The front room is now accessed from the right hand door but is more likely to have been from the left hand door? It has a bare wood floor with full height old tongue and groove panelling on the left and bare benches attached which look old; also similar bare bench seating around the small bay window. The seating goes across the left hand door which suggests some re-arranging of the interior in recent years. There is a dado of oldish (possibly dating back to inter-war years?) panelling down the right hand wall and panelled ceiling painted a deep pink. The servery is situated in the middle of this narrow pub and consists of a counter that might be inter-war (the pot shelf is modern) and three sections of back fitting. The left hand part has shelves held up by pillars with a mirrored back which all look old. The middle section has a series of small mirrored panels with a few shelves and this looks genuinely old. The right hand section of shelves attached to tongue and groove panelling is much more modern. Currently owned by Sir Ian McKellen and two others, his staff from the Lord of the Rings trilogy is affixed to the bar back.

A narrow passage alongside the staircase to the first floor leads to a small rear room. The counter front of tongue and grove panelling looks old but the top looks modern as does the door for staff. There is old dado panelling on the left hand wall with a bare bench attached and a 1930s (or 1950s?) brick fireplace but the dado panelling beyond is modern. There is a small balcony overhanging the River Thames and a restaurant room on the first floor overlooking the river (not inspected).

The Grapes is one of several laying claim to being the model for Dickens ‘Jolly Fellowship Porters’ in his book ‘Our Mutual Friend’. The politician David Owen lived next door from which ‘The Limehouse Declaration’, the manifesto of the Social Democratic Party, was issued in January 1981."

The listing description is as follows: “Public House. C19 facade. Stock brick, roof not visible. 4 storeys, 2 windows, sashes, vertical glazing bars only, segmental arches. Fascia board with end stops above ground floor. Small centre bay with 2 flanking doors.”

The lease of this atmospheric pub is now owned by the actor, Sir Ian McKellen. The pub is marvellously described thus by The Gentle Author in the book Spitalfields Life “Coming down Narrow St, parallel to the Thames, you arrive at a handsome eighteenth-century terrace and walk straight off the pavement into the bar of The Grapes leaving the sunshine behind, to discover that the building is just one room wide – no more than fifteen feet across. In the cool gloom you find yourself in a bare-boarded bar room full of attractively mismatched furniture and look beyond to the source of glimmering light, which is the river. Stepping through into the cosy back bar, no larger than a small parlour, you realise this is the entire extent of the ground floor. With an appealing surfeit of old brown matchboarding and lined with picture frames containing a whole archive of prints, photographs and paintings that tell the story of this venerable pub and outline its connection to the work of Dickens, this is one of the most charismatic spaces I know. Through the double doors, you find yourself upon the verandah and the full expanse of the water is quite overwhelming to behold at this bend in the river where it twists towards Greenwich, shimmering in the distance. In fact, this is the frontage of the pub because, until recently, most customers would have come directly from the river.” Note also the painting, Saturday Night at the Grapes which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in the late 1940s, hung on the left-hand wall of the street-side bar.

The WhatPub link is here: WhatPub/Grapes

The Pub Heritage Group link is here: PHG/Grapes

The Grapes Featured on the Evening Crawl of Limehouse, Isle of Dogs, and Greenwich on 13 April 2005, the Ornaments of the Orient: Daytime Crawl of Bow and Docklands on 24 October 2009, and the Down River: Daytime Crawl of Rotherhithe, Wapping and Limehouse on 15 June 2013.